Yacksel Ríos broke into the majors at 24 years old with the Phillies. Since 2017, he has spent time in the majors with the Phillies, Pirates, Mariners, Red Sox, and Oakland. Over his career, he’s been good in the minors but struggled in the majors. As we know, the Mets went into this season needing a lot of pitching depth from the majors all the way through the minors, so the Mets signed him in January on a minor league deal.

A key sign that Ríos hasn’t figured it out yet in the majors is how he has ended up in so many different organizations. In addition to the teams listed earlier, he has also been a member of the Tampa Bay Rays, White Sox and Atlanta Braves organizations. Ríos has never been traded. He’s either been selected off waivers by different teams, has his contract purchased, or gets released and signs with a different team.

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Last season, Ríos barely saw any time at the major league level, allowing seven runs over 1 2/3 innings spread across three games. During that time, he allowed three hits and six walks.  His best stretch in the big leagues came as a member of the Red Sox in 2021. Over 24 1/3 innings (20 games), he had a 3.70 ERA (1.110 WHIP and a 4.90 FIP), by far his best stretch in the majors. In 2021, Baseball Savant had his fastball average at 97.1 mph and at the 94th percentile in the majors.

The other reason the Mets signed Ríos is his minor league numbers. In the Braves system last year, he had a 2.49 ERA of 25 1/3 innings while keeping his walks down to 2.9 BB/9 (5.1 in the majors). In the winter league before last year, he had a 0.65 ERA over 27 2/3 innings. He also pitched well in winter ball playoffs this year. As you can see from the cover photo, Ríos pitched for Team Puerto Rico in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

Ríos has a fastball that sits in the upper-90s, and in 2021, he tossed 61% of the time. His slider (tossed 25% of the time) averages in the upper-80s but is really spread out between the low-80s and the low-90s. He mixes in a mid-80s changeup.

This spring, we are going to look for Ríos leaning into his strength (striking players out) while limiting his weakness (walking players). If he can do that effectively throughout March, he’ll start to see his stock rise throughout the Mets system.